Sony Xperia i1 could launch on 4 September

It was confirmed as launching this year by Sony and had the specification leak last month, but now it looks we have an actual launch date for the Sony Xperia i1.

The date is only half the story here though, if that. The real story is the image of the phone in the promo shot, spotted by Digi-Wo. It looks like a line on the screen, but is actually a rather slim smartphone. A real close-up shows the photo as part of the phone, the one with the power button if you've got a really good eye (or powerful zoom). So skinny is likely to be a selling point.

The other thing, as we mentioned, is the date, which is down as 4 September in Berlin. So if this is genuine, it sounds like Sony will be showing off the Xperia i1 at its IFA press event. Note made in diary.

As for the hardware, previous leaks have pointed to a 20-megapixel camera, possibly with a dedicated camera button, matched up with a Sony G lens and the Bionz image processing engine. Alongside that should be 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 chip, Adreno 330 graphics, 2GB RAM, 16GB of storage, a microSD slot, LTE and NFC support, a 5-inch full HD display, a 2-megapixel front camera and a 3000 mAh battery.

So an impressive piece of kit in theory. Let's see if it matches up in practice. We'll find out next month.